NATO fighters conducting an air patrol mission in the Baltic states took to the skies three times last week to detect and escort Russian aircraft violating flight rules, the Ministry of Defense reported on Tuesday.
On February 3, NATO fighters detected a refueling aircraft, the Il-78. It was flying in international airspace from mainland Russia to the Kaliningrad region with its transponder turned off, without a previously submitted flight plan, but maintained radio communication with the Regional Flight Control Center.
On February 6, the bloc's fighters conducted a flight to identify one tactical reconnaissance aircraft, the Su-24MR, and one fighter, the Su-27.
These aircraft were flying in international airspace from mainland Russia and back without activated transponders, without a previously submitted flight plan, and did not maintain radio communication with regional controllers.
On February 8, the fighters detected a refueling aircraft, the Il-78, flying from mainland Russia to the Kaliningrad region without an activated transponder and without submitting a flight plan, but it maintained radio communication with regional controllers.
NATO's mission to patrol the airspace of the Baltic states is carried out from the air bases of Lithuania and Estonia.
